Vikings QB Kirk Cousins Donates $500,000 to Team's Social Justice Committee
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has made a point to become a better and more vocal leader this season. He has talked about becoming more comfortable in that role now that he's in his fourth year in Minnesota, and others have noticed. Mike Zimmer has praised Cousins' growth as a leader on numerous occasions this year, while teammates have noted that the veteran QB has more "swag" to him than in years past.
That growth by Cousins entails a number of different things: increased confidence in voicing his opinions to Zimmer and speaking up in the locker room, an effort to connect on a deeper level with his teammates, and expanding his involvement in the local community.
Last week, Cousins made a big gesture that ties multiple of those areas of emphasis together. He surprised the Vikings' social justice committee with a donation of $500,000 from the Julie and Kirk Cousins Foundation, according to the Star Tribune, announcing the gift during a committee meeting on October 5th.
The committee, formed in 2018, involves players and coaches working on important issues like criminal justice reform, education, and voter registration. Headed by Andre Patterson, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Ameer Abdullah, and others, the committee gained a lot of attention with its initiatives and actions following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year.
“For me, or really for my wife and I, and our family foundation, it was really a no-brainer," Cousins said on Wednesday. "We’ve observed the work that our social justice group here with the Vikings and our locker room has done, really, since before I got here. It’s just been very impressive the way players have led, and there’s been players very involved. And I’ve observed and just been really impressed. So we wanted to get involved in the community, and we thought it’s a no-brainer to just go through right where I go to work every day, the people we know, and it just made a lot of sense."
Last year, the Wilf family, owners of the Vikings, donated $5 million towards the committee's efforts, in addition to their annual $500,000 contributions.
"It touched my heart," Patterson said about Cousins' donation. "Very, very grateful for him to do that. It's something that he did not have to do. It's tremendous that he's showing that kind of support to our group, and helping our group go out and help more people. So I'm very prideful for him, and happy that he did that. I told him that, thanked him for that for that.
"That group has been working hard, and people may not know it because it's behind the scenes and we don't go out and say 'look at me' and pound our chests and get in front of the media and talk about it. But they work all year round. They're busy on Tuesdays [when they hold their meetings], they're busy throughout the course of the week, and not just with financial support, but also being there physically. And so, it's one of the most prideful things that I've done since I've been here. And I'm just hoping that when I'm no longer here, that it carries on. Because I think it can help create huge change in not just Minneapolis, but in Minnesota."
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